Railway-crossing gate



June- 15 1928.

A. LEBRETON T AL RAILWAY CROSSING GATE Filed Dec. 6, 1922 5 relay m d m M 0 R ww a m W47 8 A O av 4 mm Patented June 15, 1926.

warren stares 2 1,588,895 PATENT OFFICE.

RAILWAY-CEOSEENG GATE.

Application filed December 6, 1922.

This invention relates to railway-crossing gates, and its object is the provision of im-' proved gates of this character and means actuated by devices carried by-a railway car for closing and opening the same.

More specific objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following specification.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a plan viewot' a portion of a railway track, road-crossing gates, and mechanism for operating the gates. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional elevation through 2-2 of Fig. 1, shown partly broken away. F ig. 3 is a detail transverse sectional view through 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. at is a front elevational' view of a portion of a car track with gate-controlling devices applied thereto, and including a section of the track through t-4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view through 55 of Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal elevational view of power transmission devices.

In said drawings, the reference numerals 5, 5 represent railway track rails laid upon ties such as 6. 7 represents a road crossing provided at opposite sides of the track with bar gates 8 and 8 which are pivotally connectcd by pins such as 9, Fig. 2, to posts 10. Said gates are in tle nature of levers of which the longer arms, indicated by 11, are of sufiiciently greater weight to be upon occasion brought by the action of gravity into road closing position as illustrated by full lines with respect to the gate shown in Fig. 2, subject, however, to the action of the train controlled revoluble rollers 14.

The shorter arm 12 of each gate is provided with a cam surface 13 arranged to be engaged successively by the revoluble rollers 1 1 to effect the elevation of the respective gate. The rollers 14 are carried by a spider 15 at diametrically opposite sides of a shaft 16 which is journaled in a bracket support 17 secured to the adjacent post 10.

The shorter arm 12 of a gate is also provided with a second cam surface 18 which acts in opposition to a roller 14iwhen the latter travels thereupon to permit the gate to close gradually during the passage of the roller over the same. The closing of a gate may be further retarded as by means of a weight 19 acting counter to the unbalanced weight of the gate structure. 7

Also mounted upon the respective shafts the lug 36 and said block for Serial No. 605,322.

16 are sprocket wheels 20 for endless chains 21 which pass about sprocket wheels 22, one for each gate, said wheels 22 being mounted upon a shaft 23 extending transversely of the track below the rails. The shaft 23 has also mounted thereon sprocket wheels 24 and 25 for endless cables 24 and 25 extending longitudinally of the track at one side thereof and passing about sprocket wheels 24 d 25 provided on transversely arranged stub shafts 26 and 27 located at suitable distances from said crossing.

As shown in Fig. 6, the cable 24 has its leads disposed substantially parallel with each other and the cable 25 has its leads crossed. i

The stub shafts 26 and 27 are journaled in standards 23 which are rigidly secured to supports such as ties 29. Mounted upon the respective stub shafts are spiders 31 and 31 carrying, at di.amet-rica-lly opposite sides of the associated shafts, rollers 32 which are arranged to be encountered by a wedge shaped block 3 which is carried'by the truck frame 34 0f a car. As illustrated, the block 33 is adapted for movements longitudinally of the truck by the pro-vision of a tail rod 35 of the block extending through an a hanger 37 which is secured to said truck frame, and by the provision of a rod 38 of said hanger serving as a guide with respect to an apertured lug element 33 of the block.

39 represents a spring interposed between yieldingly retaining the latter in its most forward position. A buffer spring 40 may advantageously be used to eliminate shocks due to the recoil of the spring 39. The cables 24 and 25' are desirably protected from injury by extending the same through conduits 41 in which are provided cable supporting rollers such as 42 in Fig. 3.

In operation, a car approaching the-road crossing 7 from the left hand side of Fig. 1 causes the wedge block 33 upon the car to engage the uppermost of the rollers 32, see Fig. 5, resulting in the spider 31 being rotatablv moved into a horizontal. position.

hen the spider is thus affected the cable 24 is actuated to impart a one-fourth of a rotation to the shaft 23 which, acting through the medium of cable 25 serves to turn the spider 31 from the horizontal position in which it is shown in Fig. 1 into a vertical position. The chains 21 are also affected to 33, or an equivalent,

apertured lug 36 of cause the spiders 15 of both posts to be given a one-fourth of a rotation whereby one of the rollers of each of the spiders acts against the cam surfaces 18 of the respective bars to allow the gates to lower from their normally open positions, such as indicated by dotted lines 11 in Fig. 2, to their closed positions, such as indicated by Fig. 2. The gates remain closed until the controlling devices on the car encounter one of the rollers 32 of spider 31 to impart a one-fourth rotation to the latter which results in a roller of each of the gate regulating spiders engaging the cam surfaces 13 to elevate the gates into their open positions with respect to the road crossing; whereupon the, respective spiders 15 are rotated into positions to have a roller of each stop, as int icated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, in engaged relation with the respective cam surface 13 to thereby keep the associated gate in its open position until the spider is again rotated by a car entering the crossing section resulting in such roller being revolved out of engaged relation with the cam surface 13. The spiders 82 and- 32 at opposite sides of the road crossing are operatively connected with each other so that when one of them is influenced by a car to close the gates the other spider is brought into engageable position for opening the gates.

The cable connections between the spiders 31 and 31 is such that the latter are each reciprocated through a one-fourth of a revolution and: but one of the rollers 82 of each spider is employed. In the event, however,

full lines inof a roller being broken or otherwise rem-- dered inoperative, the complementary roller on the respective spider may be utilized by revolubly adjusting the latter after the associated cable, 24t or 25 has been temporarily disconnected from the sprocket wheel 2& or 25 Said cables are advantageously comprised of relatively short lengths of chain elements, indicated by a and b in Fig. 6, to coact with the sprocket wheels and steel rope or rod elements, 0 and cl, coupling the respective chain elements.

vi hatwe claim, is

1. In apparatus of the character described, the combination with a railway track, and a road crossing, a post provided at one side of said crossing, of a gate bar pivoted intermediate its length to said post, a rotatable spider rovided upon said post and carrying rollers engageable with an arm of said gate bar to etli'ect the closing and opening movements of the gate bar with respect to said crossing, means provided at one side of said track and operatively connected to said spider, and means carried by a car mounted upon said track to impart motion to the first named means for actuating the spider with respect to said gate bar.

2. In apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which the spider serves normally to retain the gate bar in its open position.

Signed at Seattle, Washington, this 22nd day of November 1922.

ANNA LEBRETON. ERNEST TALBOT. 

